Let Go & Haul: Thanks for all the things
Week 46, 2018 – Brooklyn
PSA: I’m taking next weekend off for the holiday. Next logbook entry will be in two weeks when we have all recovered from turkey times and are like oh god it’s nearly December. See you then :)
Journey: where we’re at
Apparently I’m staying in on a Sunday eating soup again trying not to get sick. What the hell New York? Can y’all just be healthy? So many germs rn. I swear it takes many more years than I have lived here to build up resistance to whatever travels on the Subway in winter. See these dotted lines? They are germs.
The team fucking killed it this week. So much stuff is coming together. The next few weeks are critical, we have a lot more that needs to come together before the end of the year, but it’s happening. I am 🙏
Journal: what I learned
I got some hilarious emails back from y’all about the merits of snowsuits and also heartfelt emails about taking care of one’s body. Thank you for those, they are awesome. In light of that:
Tonight from my kitchen table desk: I’ve been roasting vegetables. My CSA box keeps giving me turnips. At least I think they are turnips. There are many different varieties and colors and sizes. It’s confusing. I don’t actually know what these little suckers are except I don’t think you can eat them raw so they all went in the roasting pan. Some of them turned out to be radishes (oops) Turns out radishes are just fine roasted (who knew?) tl;dr I actually have no idea what I’m eating and I don’t have time to find out right now. Shit’s busy.
It’s American Thanksgiving this week. Something I like about this “American timeframe” is how close it is to the end of the year. It’s a nice natural time to stop, reflect, write goals for the next year and be thankful. I feel like the Canadian one creeps up on me a lil to early for that.
I have a lot to be thankful for this year. omg, so much! We like, started this thing! When I think back to last year at this time, it was just Anton and I collaborating together in what I jokingly/lovingly call “the dude box” aka Chase’s studio that he was gracious enough to share with us. We hadn’t formed a company yet. We were in the midst of our first client project with the tech we were building and realizing that there was some serious value in it. We took another contract in December (cuz eating, rent) that was a bonkers crunch job and I listened to Work B*tch on repeat every day to get through it. (Thanks for keeping it real Britney. It’s true. If you want the things you gotta work for them). We hadn’t even found out about our acceptance into Betaworks’ Visioncamp yet. I was still writing my Congresswoman asking if we could look into why USCIS had lost my visa application for many months. Damn, what a different time that was. I’m so grateful for all the incredible things that have transpired since then, and all the people who support what we’re doing – especially our team and investors.
(There is one realllly big thing I’m really hoping clicks into place before the end of the year, like pls pls pls world! If that thing happens, omg, I would have so much more to be thankful for. If that happens you will definitely see me lose my shit in this email, ha!).
Besides the work things, I feel like this year was one of going deeper on friendships, feeling more solidly in New York. I don’t have any family here, but I have “family”. Y’all know who you are 😘
And personally, oh geez have I done a lot of work, and I am thankful for being able to do this. I’ve dealt with some old sticky things that were holding me back and honestly, I gotta say, other than all the obvious things – this is the real work of leadership, just getting out of your own damn way – no matter how hard it is. I was talking about this the other night with one of my founder friends Aneri, and she and I were joking about how there isn’t a week that goes by where we think “oh god I need to deal with that now?, ok, let’s just push our limits a little bit more…” Other parts of this job get easier but that part doesn’t seem to.
This newsletter has been part of it so thanks for letting me slide into your inbox once a week in an attempt to pause, reflect, and share amidst what is otherwise non-stop hustle, persistent frustration, constant mistakes, course-corrections, and little wins all as fast as I can push myself to go.
Today I was listening to the latest episode of Call Your Girlfriend (love those two), and they had LeVar Burton on (Reading Rainbow, Star Trek) answering questions from listeners. One was a tough question from an artist about investing money into one’s own career on a tight budget, and LeVar answered with “Questions like this are always best answered from that place of stillness… where you can tap into you inner wisdom and guidance to see the truth about what direction to go” Yep. Finding that stillness to listen to your gut. It’s easier said than done with a hectic schedule. That’s what Sundays have become for me, a moment of stillness – and I think largely in part to this ritual of writing. It’s good.
Jams: what I’m listening to
I got stuck in some of the amazing playlists people had made on This Is My Jam this week. I hadn’t looked at this old work in a minute but damn, there are some gems. They are all Spotify playlists so go nuts and follow some of these. Hand-picked music for days, my friends. Here are some to get started:
Eccentric weird vibes. Katheryn and I listened to this on Tuesday and then drank very weird red mezcal infused with chicken and crickets in it to go with the weird vibes music and I still can’t decide what was weirder, the music or the meat booze.
Disco, disco, disco. If you need an instant party in your ears, this guy knows all the rare cuts.
The future. Our inside joke – the Institute for the Future of Music was our office.
Solid gold hip hop from David. He know’s what’s up, ’nuff said. Also my sister Monika. Check these two for the beats.
Nothing but the jams. Brian is the man.
Mine – you kinda know what this is all about!